Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Monday asked the union government whether it is possible to make eye-donation mandatory whenever a body is sent for post mortem.
The division bench of Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice RV More was hearing a public interest litigation filed by Sampat Shetty, which claims that only 14 percent of the donated corneas are actually utilised by the eye banks, the rest become useless.
Dr Jaswant Mehta, an intervener in the case, today told the court that under the `Central Transplantation of Human Organs Act`, whenever a body is sent for post-mortem (after accidental death, for instance), the cornea of the deceased
can be used for transplantation.

The bench then directed the union government to make a submission on this at the next hearing on March 2.

According to the PIL, cornea of a dead person (donor) is often recovered in haste, and necessary tests are not performed, which leads to they becoming useless.

The High Court had earlier suggested the Maharashtra government to set up a district-wise centralised database of available corneas.

Presently, a person seeking eye-transplant has to make application to individual eye banks. If the High Court`s suggestion is implemented, a single application would reach every eye-bank.